June 2011

CHINESE authorities are demanding public silence from their critics, including artist Ai Weiwei, who was freed from detention this week, as the country swings into election mode over the next 15 months.

China will look to strike a better balance in its relations with India and Pakistan and will focus on improving relations with its neighbours in the next Five-Year Plan period (2011-15), according to representatives of the country’s top foreign policy advisory body.

Two ethnic Uyghurs from Pakistan were prevented from leaving their country to attend a summit in Turkey following demands by China, one of the men said, in the latest example of Beijing’s influence over its neighboring governments.

The Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution published an article recently by a Chinese scholar that advocates a "one China, two equal-level governments" formula for the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to normalize and stabilize their relations for a relatively long time.